Grassley Presses E-15 Summertime Marketing Bill

Grassley-Paul E15 bill

EPA summertime restrictions on higher blends of ethanol and the petroleum industry’s resistance to installing new blend pumps has throttled E-15 availability and sales. But Kentucky Republican and now-Presidential candidate Rand Paul has teamed up with Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley to offer E-15 some help in the form of the Fuel Choice and Deregulation Act of 2015.

According to Grassley, “It would change what EPA could do to treat E-15 different during the summer from E-10 because basically in some parts of the country you can’t use E-15 today.”

Grassley says there are some key provisions they have included.

“One would be remove burdensome EPA certification on aftermarket vehicle conversions; secondly reform cafe requirements by permanently extending the credit for auto manufacturers of flex-fuel vehicles and provide a new bonus credit of compliance for automakers with at least half of their fleet comprised of flex-fuel.”

And the bill would require liquid natural gas to be taxed based on its energy content instead of its volume – removing a federal barrier to competition. The EPA lifted restrictions on E-15 use in many older model and newer model cars and light trucks some five-years ago – but many roadblocks remain to its widespread use.

Politico.com reported at the first of the month that co-sponsoring the bill with Grassley gives Rand Paul a way to appeal to Iowa’s alternative energy sector, while not compromising his free-market ideology.

Recommended Posts

Loading...